European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 21, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Venice exhibit puts Leonardo a Vinci in his place by William d. Montalbano los Angeles times if at first glance teaming Leonardo a Vinci with Renaissance Venice Italy seems like a marriage of titans look again. The result in a canal Side 1 both Century Palace is More a Small Joy than an Art spectacular. Leonardo amp Venice which runs until july 5 at the Palazzo Grassi is twin barrelled it Marks the first time that so Many of Leonardo s Small drawings More than 70, have been shown together. And by juxtaposing the drawings with paintings by his venetian contemporaries such As Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione it offers the first systematic look at Leonardo s Impact on fellow artists in the City. Leonardo who divided most of his time Between his native Florence and Milan visited Venice in time of War in March 1500 when he was 48 and already a legend. Venetian authorities welcomed him As a military Engineer As much As an artist. A turkish War Fleet Lay menacingly offshore and Leonardo threw out engineering advice like Sparks flood the neighbouring Countryside to forestall an invasion attack the turkish ships from underwater. As Ever Leonardo ambidextrous by recorded his design ideas in painstaking detail on bits or paper or Parchment with pen and Brown Ink or coloured Chalk. He scribbled extensive notes in Mirror writing right to left. The main part of the Grassi s show is fruit of Leonardo s lifelong habit of carrying a notebook around in his pocket in the Way today s news photographers never stir without a just in Case camera. Many of the drawings which Span a lifetime of Art and engineering Are from italian museums but some of the Best have been Lent by Britain s Queen Elizabeth ii from her Windsor Castle collection drawings and sketches from museums in Hungary Germany Vienna and Tranee Are also shown along with american contributions from the metropolitan museum in new York. The scope of the drawings reflects the depth of the Man a Genius equally at Home with schemes for flying machines submarines Gargantuan crossbows dragon like Venice s Grassi Palace s exhibit on Leonardo a Vinci insert shows the effect he had on his artistic contemporaries and on the defense of Venice. Cats a and the Mona Lisa. Some drawings illuminate his plans for religious works ranging from nativity scenes to the last supper. As counterpoint there Are drawings of an almost surrealistic scythe War Chariot and lifelike scenes of cavalry attacking infantry. One highlight at the show is Leonardo s jumping Jack proportions of the human body according to Vitruvius which is normally shown across the canal at the Academia. Most drawings Are on paper no larger than Book sized. They Are displayed vertically and at Eye level. Some Are faded and details Are often hard to discern although in conjunction with the Well illustrated Catalon they All Spring to life. Paintings and sculpture by other artists of the venetian Renaissance that accompany the drawings were chosen to illustrate what is called the Quot Leona Desque Quot influence on Early 16th-Century venetian painting. Leonardo s studies of old people for example find vivid Echo in the haunting anguish of age that Stamps Giorgione s the old woman. So too is there a Clear Leonardo influence in the composition and the use of Light in Bellini s Virgin and child with saints Catherine file and Mary Magdalene on display at the show. Leonardo did not Tarry Long in Venice Only a few months. But he left some drawings behind and copies of his work Are known to have circulated widely among venetian artists of the period Many of Venice s Renaissance masters such As Titian owe some secret of technique or vision to the Leonardo visit. Indeed his presence lingers still. Leonardo s Venice is open from 9 am. To 7 . Daily. Admission is about $9. The Well executed Catalon available in English costs about $48.louvre pays homage to Art historian by the new York times Charles Sterling was a polish born Art historian whose educated Eye and vast knowledge helped the new York metropolitan museum gather and then Catalon its outstanding collection of French Art during the 1940s and 50s. But his first and truest love was for the louvre and it is outside that Paris museum that posters for the exhibition homage to Charles Sterling can be seen today. The show that bears his name and is on View through june 22 consists of exactly 24 paintings about which Sterling had something indispensable to say they Range in Date from the Ceil heated 1 5th-Century i non Pieta to the Matisse still life Ith irangt1 that was one of pit Assoc a prouder possessions it would be no More than a distinguished anthology were it not that every painting comes with a lengthy text drawn from Sterling s published writings. Those texts reveal him not merely As a great archival scholar but As a connoisseur of the first rank who was also a lord of language. This is the More remarkable in that Sterling was in Many ways a late beginner. He was 20 before he Learned French. He was 24 when he arrived in Paris in 1925 As a lawyer having qualified in Warsaw and decided to become an Art historian. He was taught by Henri Foci i Ion Whu formed Many a major Art historian and his gifts were immediately evident. But even so he regretted to the end of his life that in boyhood and Young manhood he had never had the education that had Given a kick Start to so Many a Clever Young Frenchman. But it turned out that in his use of French Sterling was As attentive to the music of the word As he was to the music of the Eye. He spoke True and he spoke memorably Well with never a Side step into gratuitous Fine  it is fundamental to the show that every picture in it relates to a specific episode in Sterling s career. There Are Sublime and vastly varied still lifes by Luis Melendez Lubin Baughin Jean Simeon Chardin and Henri Matisse to remind us that Sterling pioneered the study of still life As an autonomous Mode of painting that could take a High rank on its own merits. He also pioneered the scientific study of painting in France during the Middle Ages. The first copy of volume two of his monumental study medieval painting in Paris was put into his hands As he Lay dying last year not far Short of his 90th birthday thanks to his More than 50 years research into this subject the world now knows who painted what and where and when in medieval France. On Man occasions a and above All in the Case of the Avignon Pieta by general consent one of the finest european paintings of its Date a Sterling was Able to identify the artist concerned. The name of Enguerrand Quarton is never Likely to be bandied about in the auction rooms but As the author of the Avignon Pieta he has no need of other credentials. Sterling was a colossal worker whose investigations have taught the whole world a lot about its Art. It is Only fitting that he i it honoured with his own exhibition. 12 stripes Maudrine May 21, 1992